Heroes of Running: Alberto Salazar

Alberto Salazar's lifelong journey in the sport of distance running attained a new pinnacle in 2012. He was already a legend for winning three consecutive New York City Marathon titles in the 1980s, and for his successful 11-year tenure as coach for the Nike Oregon Project--a full-press initiative to deliver non-African distance runners to the level of the dominant Kenyans and Ethiopians. But then came the historic moment when Mo Farah, a Somali-born Brit and Oregon Project member, crushed the final lap of the 10,000 meters at the London Games in just over 53 seconds to capture a gold medal. In second place by less than half a second, Farah's training partner and fellow Salazar protégé Galen Rupp broke a 48-year medal drought for U.S. male 10,000-meter runners.

The image of Farah clutching his head in wonder after his triumph galvanized a global TV audience. "Everybody assumes that Mo was celebrating his own victory with that gesture," Salazar, 54, says. "But in fact, he had just turned back after crossing the finish line and learned that Galen had won the silver. That's when Mo clapped his hands to his head--he was ecstatic at the achievement of his friend. Out of all the special moments in 2012, that might have been my favorite."

Indeed, there were many. Seven days after his triumph in the 10,000, Farah also won gold in the 5000 meters. Matthew Centrowitz, another Oregon Project athlete, missed bronze in the 1500 by a fraction of a second in his first Olympics. And at the Chicago Marathon in October, the Oregon Project's Dathan Ritzenhein snapped a long string of disappointments with a 2:07:47 performance--a two-minute PR that vaulted him to number three on the all-time list of fastest U.S. marathoners, and ahead of a fellow named Salazar.

"I don't regard our success this year as a vindication," says Salazar, who suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 2007. "It's the culmination of steady work and improvement. The results validated our belief that we train harder--and smarter--than any group of runners in the world."

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